Resilient leadership in hospitality and tourism enterprises: Conceptualization and scale development

Purpose: This study aims to conceptualize the dimensions of resilient leadership and develop the resilient leadership scale (RLS) through three studies. Design/methodology/approach: In Study 1, based on interviews with 77 leaders and 8 junior employees, a seven-factor resilient leadership model was constructed. In Study 2, exploratory factor analysis (n = 237) was conducted to refine the initial items. In Study 3, confirmatory factor analysis (n = 610) was performed to validate the dimensional structure identified in Study 2, and different types of validity of the RLS were assessed. Findings: The validated RLS composed of seven dimensions: contingency planning, improvisation, adaptive instructing, contingency control, emergency care, adjustment recovery and mutual growth. The scale showed desirable measurement qualities in terms of reliability and validity. Resilient leadership and its dimensions significantly impact employee turnover intentions and employee resilience. Research limitations/implications: This research contributes to the literature on the resilience of hospitality and tourism enterprises and enriches the research scope and theoretical framework of resilient leadership. Originality/value: This research revealed the resilient leadership responses to crisis in hospitality and tourism enterprises with practical implications for tourism enterprise leaders to deal with major crisis

Concept and Evidence of Tourist Risk Gaze

Gaze describes the experiential way that tourists perceive destinations during trips. Destination-related risks are inevitable in tourism; however, little attention has been given to the tourist gaze based on travel risk. Our research addresses this disparity by proposing and exploring the concept of tourist risk gaze. In Study 1, findings suggest that this type of gaze involves three interrelated aspects: risk information gaze, risky attraction gaze, and risky behavior gaze. In Study 2, we invited 50 Chinese university students to participate in an eye-tracking experiment to test tourist risk gaze. Participants displayed distinct visual attention patterns towards these three aspects when tourists encountered them during trips. This research offers a new lens through which to consider the tourist gaze and risk perception. It also introduces a novel eye-tracking method to analyze travel risk and the tourist gaze

Tourism crises and impacts on destinations: a systematic review of the tourism and hospitality literature

Tourism crises are important events affecting the development of destinations. However, the academic community lacks adequate knowledge from the accumulated literature on the classification attributes, spatial distribution, and impact structure of global tourism crises. This research analyzed 302 articles related to tourism crises from 1991 to 2020 drawn from the Social Sciences Citation Index database. Bibliometric and content analyses were conducted to identify the event types, regional distribution, impact structure, and synergistic factors of tourism crises. The results showed that the extant research on tourism crises has event-driven characteristics. The types of tourism crises are diverse and have multiple sub-categories. The tourism crises featured in academic research are mainly events affecting Asia, Europe and North America, reflecting their real-world distribution. The impacts of tourism crises on destinations are at three levels: macro, meso, and micro. Synergistic factors can enhance or weaken the degree of crisis impacts, which include positive, negative and interactive factors. Research on tourism crises has substantial future scope and this investigation puts forward an agenda for this work

Smart tourism destination experiences: the mediating impact of arousal levels

This research explored the relationship between environmental stimuli and tourist experiences by considering the mediating impact of arousal level. Designed around the arousal theory of environmental psychology, this framework suggests that novel environmental stimuli create optimal arousal levels and lead to optimal performance. An on-site survey was distributed to tourists at Hu Li Shan Fortress in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, which is a smart tourism destination recognized by the Chinese government. Completed self-administered questionnaires were obtained from 372 respondents who had used the smart facilities. The findings through the SEM (structural equation modeling) method revealed that physical and psychological stimuli had positive effects on arousal levels and tourist experiences and arousal level was a moderator between environmental stimuli and tourist experiences. Thus, destinations should offer optimal environmental stimuli to tourists by increasing smart facilities and services and continuously updating them

Developing a scale to measure tourist perceived safety

Safety for tourists at places visited is essential to their enjoyment and experiences, as well as a determinant of destination success. Yet, little attention has been paid to the conceptualization and scale development for tourist perceived safety at destinations (TPSD). The primary purpose of this research was to identify the dimensions of TPSD and develop a scale for measuring it based on safety system theory. A three-stage study in a mixed-method design was conducted to develop and validate TPSD. Stage 1 identified the dimensions and initial items of TPSD through extensive literature reviewing and content analysis of travel blogs. In stage 2 (n = 300), an explanatory factor analysis was conducted to refine and validate the preliminary items. Stage 3 (n = 1,830) provided empirical support for a 20-item, five-dimension (human, facility and equipment, natural environment, social environment, management) TPSD scale through confirmatory factor analysis

Fostering resident pro-environmental behavior: the roles of destination image and Confucian culture

Residents are important participants and stakeholders in destination development. Identifying factors that assist in predicting resident pro-environmental behavior (PEB) may contribute to enhanced sustainability. Based on a traditional Chinese culture, this research constructed a model of resident PEB by introducing pro-environmental destination image (PEDI) and Confucianism as the independent and moderating variables, respectively. The structural equation modeling for 402 residents indicated the model had a satisfactory level of predictive power for PEB. The results showed that: (1) PEDI positively affected residents’ environmental identity, pro-environmental attitudes, and PEB; (2) environmental identity and pro-environmental attitudes completely mediated the impact of PEDI on residents’ PEB; and (3) Confucian culture had a positive U-shaped moderating effect in the relationships among these four variables. Overall, these findings advance the understanding of the formation of PEB in Confucian culture and provide theoretical and practical implications for fostering residents’ PEB

Incentives and motivations of Chinese destination management organization officers

Purpose - This research aims to divide expectations into three time-scales based on expectancy theory, namely, short-term, medium-term and long-term expectations. Based on that, this research identify the incentive-motivation structures of tourism officers by time-scales, and the effect of incentives on job engagement, performance, and satisfaction is investigated. Design/methodology/approach - A survey was conducted in 31 provinces of China, and a total of 650 responses were used for further analysis after removing invalid surveys. The statistical analysis techniques used were confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling. Findings - The results showed that: (1) realistic motivations, career prospects, and ‘macro-vision’ were the motivational factors in the short-, medium-, and long-term respectively; (2) incentives positively predicted tourism officers’ job engagement, performance, and satisfaction; and (3) job engagement and performance partially mediated the influence of incentives on job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation was that the questionnaires were collected with the same measurement system within a certain period of time (cross-sectional design). Moreover, the respondents were from 31 provinces in China, and there may be diverse conclusions based on the investigation of different regions due to the varied and complex geographical and social condition as well as the regional economic development levels and administrative systems. Practical implications – Destination government departments must recognize tourism officer needs and motivations in the short-, medium-, and long-terms, and develop tailored incentive programs. Moreover, government departments should emphasize the key role of tourism officers’ job engagement. Originality/value – Based on expectancy theory across different time-scales, this research identified the incentive-motivation structure and its effect of Chinese destination management organizations officers, and potentially provides a theoretical basis for the optimization of this administrative incentive system

Investigation of bio-aerosol dispersion in a tunnel-ventilated poultry house

Bio-aerosol concentrations in poultry houses must be controlled to provide adequate air quality for both birds and workers. High concentrations of airborne bio-aerosols would affect the environmental sustainability of the production and create environmental hazards to the surroundings via the ventilation systems. Previous studies demonstrate that several factors including the age of the birds, the housing configuration, the humidity and temperature would strongly affect the indoor concentration of bio-aerosols. However, limited studies are performed in the literature to investigate the bio-aerosol dispersion pattern inside poultry buildings. In order to fill a gap of the understanding of the bio-aerosol dispersion behavior, experimental measurements of the indoor bio-aerosol distribution are performed in a tunnel-ventilated poultry house in this paper. Meanwhile a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is built and validated to further investigate the effect of flow pattern, turbulence and vortex on the dispersion and deposition of the bio-aerosols. Furthermore, bio-aerosols with various diameters are also examined in the CFD model. It is found that higher concentrations of bio-aerosols are detected at the rear part of the house and strong turbulent flow resulting from the ventilation inlets enhances the diffusion and dispersion of bio-aerosols. Local vortex or disturbed flow is responsible for higher local concentration due to the re-suspension of settled bio-aerosols, which suggests that careful attentions should be paid to these locations during cleaning and disinfection. Results from present study contribute to the optimization of design and operation of the poultry houses from the standing point of reducing airborne bio-aerosol concentrations

Experiences, motivations, perceptions, and attitudes regarding ethnic minority village tourism

Ethnic minority villages are a vital part of tourism in certain destinations, often attracting many domestic and international visitors to experience unique local cultures and authentic lifestyles. However, much of the relevant literature has not examined tourist motivations, perceptions, and attitudes regarding ethnic minority village tourism. This exploratory qualitative research analyzed user-generated blogs uploaded by people sharing their ethnic minority village experiences in Guizhou Province, China. ROST Content Mining6 software was employed to identify motivations, perceptions, and attitudes toward minority village tourism. The findings indicated that tourist experience included natural aesthetic, cultural aesthetic, service and interaction, and entertainment. The main motivation was to experience unique cultural activities. The strongest perceptions were of the local villagers, Miao and Dong family life, and tourism services and environments. Tourist attitudes were mostly positive. Suggestions for better satisfying tourist needs and improving experiences were derived from the data